Pollution of streams and waterways has been a globally recognized problem for a great many years as storm water runoff from agricultural land carries with it sediment, nitrogen and phosphorous, as well as other pollutants into streams, rivers and tidal waters. While concerns are typically expressed locally, the problem is national in scope.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the United States has more than 330 million acres of agricultural land that producing an abundant supply of food and other products. American agriculture is noted worldwide for its high productivity, quality and efficiency in delivering goods to the consumer. Improperly managed, however, activities from working farms and ranches can adversely affect water quality.
In the 2000 National Water Quality Inventory, states reported that agricultural nonpoint source (NPS) pollution* was the leading source of water quality impacts on surveyed rivers and lakes, the second largest source of impairments to wetlands, and a major contributor to contamination of surveyed estuaries and ground water. (Worldwide Web: epa.gov “Polluted Runoff (Nonpoint Source Pollution).” [*Note: NPS pollution comes from runoff, such as rainfall or snowmelt, moving over and through the ground, picking up pollutants as it goes. Some of these pollutants occur naturally, such as nutrients from sediments, manure or pet wastes; others are manmade, such as fertilizers or automotive grease.]
As a case in point, more recent EPA statistics (released in 2009) indicate the stormwater accounts for 100% of sediment entering the endangered Chesapeake Bay. Closer analysis reveals that as much as 60% of stormwater borne pollution is agricultural in origin. Data show that stormwater accounts for 42% of nitrogen entering the Bay, with 32% of that flushed from regional farms. As much as 76% of another troubling Bay pollutant, phosphorus, is also introduced with runoff stormwater, with nearly half of that known to be agricultural in origin.
Not surprisingly, massive resources (both government and privately funded) have been sunk into inventing and deploying varied approaches to addressing this serious issue, which reaches beyond concerns for waterway and wetland pollution to groundwater safety with boundless implications. Thus, the problems of runoff are, of course, not limited to the agricultural business since potentially polluting chemicals such as herbicides and fertilizers enjoy unprecedented application in neighborhoods, golf courses, parks and highways.
A wide variety of concepts have been proposed but with limited success for a number of reasons. Practices most commonly used to control runoff pollution include (1) filter strips, (2) grass waterways and (3) wetlands (natural and constructed). Past and ongoing financial investment and land commitment to these practices varies, as does the effectiveness of pollution attenuation.
Filter strips comprise narrow, vegetative bands (grass or trees) strategically planted along the edges of streams, rivers, bays. These bands may be planted in various widths from as narrow as twenty feet or as wide as several hundred feet. The intended outcome of this practice is that runoff will be filtered before it can reach waterways. More particularly, as stormwater flows off the land/fields and passes through the filter strips, sediment and nutrients are filtered or contained therein, thus preventing the pollutants from migrating to streams and tidal waters. The problem with this practice is that an unusually heavy rain event brings such a high flow rate of stormwater runoff that only a relatively small portion of the flowing pollutants can be captured. Moreover, since runoff may have traversed a considerable distance from its origin, perhaps miles, before it encounters filter strips residing only along stream or bay edges, there may be far too much runoff accumulation to filter effectively.
“Grass waterways” (also commonly referred to as “floodways”) are relatively low topographical, grassy areas into and along which stormwater flows as it leaves the agricultural fields, then progresses downhill and eventually into a stream/river/bay. Floodway practice can be effective in preventing gullies or washout ditches from forming, thereby avoiding eroded sediment from washing into streams/rivers/bay waters. Further, floodway vegetation has been found somewhat effective as a natural filtering system accomplishing the objectives mentioned with respect to the above-discussed filter strips. Another aspect in common with the filter strip approach: grass waterways generally fail in their filtering role in the face of heavy stormwater accumulations and the consequential acceleration of long distance runoffs.
“Wetlands” is the general name for natural or purposefully constructed land areas on which water covers the soil (or is present either at or near the surface of the or within the root zone) at least for varying time periods. Recurrent or prolonged presence of water (hydrology) at the soil surface is the dominant factor determining the soil nature and types of plants living in the soil. Wetlands are characteristically defined by the presence of plants (hydrophytes) adapted to life in soil subjected to flooded or saturated conditions (typically referred to as hydric soils). [Mitsch, W. J. and J. G. Gosselink, 1993; Wetlands, 2nd Ed. John Wiley & Sons; New York; 722 pp].
Situated between the “dry” land and the water, wetlands can serve as buffers by slowing the flow of pollutants into tributaries and onward to larger bodies of water such as the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. As polluted stormwater runs off the agricultural land and passes through wetlands, the hydrophytes [trees and grasses native to the wetland soil] serve to filter and absorb nutrients, suspended sediments and chemical contaminants. [Chesapeake Bay Program Watershed Project, Annapolis, Md. website at chesapeakebay.net/wetlds1.htm]
Natural wetlands, of course, are reasonably effective only when they happen to be strategically located with respect to flows of agricultural runoff. Constructed (or manmade) wetlands are extremely expensive to create, particularly considering the plantings involved. Again, similar to the above-described filter strips and waterways, a heavy rain event can deliver such heavy volumes of runoff that the resultant flow through the wetlands overrides its capacity to effectively address sediment and nutrients. These widespread “solutions” have fallen short of their good intentions, leading to the development of still other approaches. The patent literature reflects ongoing interest in developing commercializable systems to address the challenge of stormwater runoff pollution as well as other contamination treatments. The following is a sampling from a cursory review of US patent files.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,823,711 granted to Herd et al. (henceforth referenced as Herd) presents a system for trapping and recycling surface water containing treatment chemicals, particularly on golf courses and possibly farms. The Herd drainage and collection system includes a graded channel in which is secured a water impervious liner covering the channel bottom and wall surfaces. Scrap automobile tire components are positioned within the channel and on top of the liner.
The Herd system includes a drainage reservoir formed at a low point in the channel. The surface water percolates through and around the scrap tire components, runs down the grades of the liner, and collects within the reservoir. A pumping station(s) cooperates with an irrigation system to recycle the water and chemicals back to the surface of the golf course or the like. The objective of the Herd system is the collection, storage, and recirculation of water and chemicals used to maintain the field area. Repeatedly recycled fertilizer-laden runoff, of course, has its own natural limitations in terms of continued effectiveness and scale of application.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,330,651 entitled Treatment of Contaminated Agricultural Run-off, Canadian inventors Robertson, Blowers and Ptacek (subsequently referenced as Robertson) disclose a system of land drains to convey nitrate-polluted run-off water from a field to a reservoir. The proposed reservoir would be large enough to contain excess quantities of storm water run-off. From the reservoir, the water enters a collection tank containing submerged wood or other organic carbon material. The wood is kept under water, i.e., under anaerobic conditions, whereby nitrates are broken down by bio-chemical action. Sufficient wood is added and flow rate is adjusted such that the nitrate-polluted water spends many hours in contact with the wood.
The objective of the Robertson invention is to provide a treatment which will break down the nitrate in water washed off an agricultural field so that run-off water eventually passing away from the field is substantially nitrate-free. The Robertson invention is mainly concerned with treating water that enters drainage ditches, land-drains. This system may or may not sufficiently treat the nitrate-laden water and does little or nothing with respect to accompanying pollutants, all of which then depart for the estuaries and coast.
Wengrzynek's U.S. Pat. No. 5,174,897 also deals with nonpoint source water pollution. The Wengrzynek invention proposes a staged construct comprising (in hydraulic order) a sediment basin, level-lip spreader, grassy filter, wetland, and deep pond, the combination of which can be used to remove pollutants from nonpoint source runoff. Wetlands are planted with vegetation that encourages growth of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria which are helpful in removing and detoxifying contaminants. This would appear to be a grand scale approach, and essentially un-scalable.
A system presented by St. Onge and Smith (hereafter: St. Onge) is reflected in Published Patent Application 2003/0019150 entitled: Reclamation System for Agricultural Runoff. This published patent application relates to systems for collecting excess water applied to crops, treating the collected water and reusing the treated water for agricultural purposes, or delivering the treated water to ground water streams. Their objective is to achieve cost savings, healthier plants, and reduce the environmental burden.
More specifically, the St. Onge systems purportedly would significantly reduce costs involved in providing water, nitrogen fertilizer, herbicides and/or pesticides to crops by doing the following: a) capturing as much as possible of the water provided to the planting area which is not taken up by the planted crops; b) treating that captured water with ozone; c) reapplying the ozone treated water to the crops. According to St. Onge patent applicants, the quality and quantity of food stuffs produced is also increased by the process. This is another scheme for continuously recycling pollutants.
The aforementioned patents and published patent application are purposed to capture and treat run-off pollutants, and in some instances to recycle run-off water. However, none of those patent documents presents a system as effective, yet elegantly simple, straightforward and easily replicable/scalable as the novel Cascading System of Floodway Stormwater Containment Basins presently disclosed. For the record, each of the above discussed patent documents, in its entirety, was incorporated by reference in its entirety within cross-referenced Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/573,110.
The presently presented unique cascading basin system, unlike pre-existing treatment schemes, captures and/or recaptures stormwater and runoff starting with higher elevation such that its flow toward downstream waterways is extremely diminished or eliminated, while contaminants are retained within the basins. Moreover the stormwater/runoff is oxygenated during its cascading motion from one containment basin to the next, thereby positively altering the molecular structure of contained nitrates as other pollutants suspended therein.
In essence, this unique cascading system not only accomplishes the sought-after end results of the above-noted common practices, but substantially eliminates discharge altogether. Confidential testing of a full scale prototype array of cascading basins designed to handle runoff rates of the magnitude of a 50-year storm event has realized zero pollution discharge.
Hence, the present invention solves the agricultural runoff problem, and does so in a relatively inexpensive manner. The unique structure described below offers special advantages as will be appreciated from reading this specification. A brief description of the invention and its method of use or application is set forth in the next section; followed by reference to accompanying drawings and a full and clear description.